‘I have to wear a mask to watch TV’: Woman claims SA Housing has ignored pleas to fix salt damp problem for more than a year

An elderly woman has to wear a mask to watch TV because of the salt damp in her living room. But she claims her pleas for help have been ignored.

An elderly woman has resorted to wearing a mask indoors to protect herself from salt damp after claiming her pleas for help have been ignored by SA Housing Trust over the past year.

Margaret Tattingham said she first reported salt damp on the walls in her lounge room last October with the issue getting worse as time goes on.

Now, the 80-year-old claims she is unable to watch TV without coughing.

“When I sit in the lounge room I have to wear a mask because the salt damp makes me cough and I stopped using my heater,” Ms Tattingham, who also suffers from severe tinnitus and head trauma, said.

“It’s a very hard cough that sometimes makes the chest sore and I notice a lot of mucus comes out.

“I ended up having to go to the hospital because I had vertigo and the coughing made it worse – the mask helps.”

Margaret Tattingham, who lives alone, has spent the past year trying to get SA Housing Trust to fix the salt damp problem in her house to no avail. Picture: Mark Brake

She said she contacted SA Housing Trust ten times since October and had to “push” them to come out to take photos of the salt damp in April – but never heard from them again.

“That took three visits before somebody came and they just took the photos and went,” she said.

“They never said a word or explained anything to me so I was left in lurch,” she said.

She first noticed the salt damp late last year and says it has only gotten worse since. Picture: Mark Brake

She has lived in the 1900s Seacombe Gardens homestead since 1995 and just wanted to “get it fixed” sooner rather than later.

“I just want it to get fixed, I feel like its only going to get worse and it’s affecting my health and at my age I don’t want to have bad health,” she said.

“When it was called Housing Trust, you could trust them because they would do the job then have somebody come check to make sure that it was done correctly but that hasn’t been done for a long time.

“I’d like them to fix it and not let it go on any longer, so if someone is able to help me get something done I’d be very grateful.”

A spokesman for SA Housing Trust said they work closely with tenants to resolve any maintenance issues they may have and apologised for the delay.

“In this case, a maintenance report has been submitted and a contractor has previously visited the property to scope works, and is liaising with the tenant to arrange for a salt damp specialist and plasterer to compete this,” he said.